The quantity and quality of the 2025 NHL trade deadline is compensated. After all, we don’t often play as long as Mikko Rantanen Saga, which spins a few twists deep in the center of Texas. The Panthers’ amazing acquisition of Brad Marchand is one of the greatest buzzers in deadline history.
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NHL Trade Deadline: Grading each transaction completes this trade season
Now that the dust has been resolved – fully knowing that the real winners and losers will not know until mid-June – let’s see who enjoyed the biggest improvement by the deadline, who seized the biggest opportunity, who fell in the face.
Winner: Florida Black Panther
Imagine that it goes against the line with Brad Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk. Good luck. Black Panther General Manager Bill Zito took advantage of Tkachuk’s groin injury and caught Marchand at the last minute after joining Seth Jones earlier this week.
Marchand may not be his 100-point player six years ago, but he is still a great all-around player and one of the greatest pests in the history of the game. Sometime this spring, after a major victory in South Florida, you can count on the mouse that was bathed by a fake rat. Both Marchand and Tkachuk are now hurt, but expecting to return in the playoffs is crucial in Florida. Although Jones was awarded the No. 1 defense for the Blackhawks, he could be third in Florida (Aaron Ekblad as an unrestricted free agent this summer and potentially second), Chicago maintained a $2.5 million loss over the next five seasons, while Chicago scored a $7 million block.
Winner: Mikko Rantanen
Rantanen is a member of the Carolina Hurricane for about six weeks. He spent his first week on the way. He spent the next two weeks with Finnish teams in Montreal and Boston. He held six home games in Raleigh. Totally reasonable, he wasn’t ready to incorporate the next eight years into a franchise and a city he barely knew. And he is working on a nine-digit deal to complicate things further.
Rantanen then went to sign an eight-year contract with Dallas, a team he never played in, a city he never lived in. It is reportedly less than $96 million than Carolina offers. It seems in doubt that the tax-free state team has an inherent advantage over the rest of the league.
Rantanen has completely control over his situation, so he must be happy with the deal or it won’t happen. While seeing what someone like Rantanin can get in the open market – a player like him rarely gets to that, he is joining one of the best and best teams in the league, and he has won generations of wealth to do it. How can you see it as why besides victory?
Winner: Dallas Stars
Jim Nill portrayed himself as a corner, handing over $96 million to Rantanen, Tyler Seguin stood out from the long-time injured reserve team (LTIR) and Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley. Then there is Captain Jamie Benn, an unlimited free agent. any. He will eventually do that, and given Nill’s history, he will certainly make everything work. Importantly, this is a favorite of Stanley Cup and is the best team in the NHL. Jean Rantanen (much less than he entered the open market) was a huge coup. The NHL’s center of gravity continues to move south.
Loser: Carolina Hurricane
There is no active spin as a hurricane. GM Eric Tulsky did a great job of saving something tangible from it—and if you keep going back to the initial deal with Colorado, maybe even net gain—but that’s a bad pace. The Hurricane gave up on a team-friendly contract with Martin Necas to acquire Rantanen, earning 13 minority games from him (winning only seven), before flipping him to Dallas for Dallas in exchange for Logan Stankoven and two late first-round picks. Stankoven is an exciting young player, but will he even be at Necas level, let alone Rantanen? The truth is, this is probably the best opportunity for Carolina to break through in an open Eastern Conference. Instead, they are farther from the competition than they have been in the years.
Last year, the Hurricanes stood out from the team tradition, thus making Jake Guentzel the rental, just watching him leave Tampa (another team in Tampa!). This obviously frightened Carolina that Rantanen’s ambivalence about the long-term residence in Raleigh prompted this rather drastic action. it’s a shame. Rantanen’s work is not better than 6 points in 13 games), but he has a great chance of scoring. The goal will come, Rantanen is a monster in the playoffs. Carolina could have come for this, the consequences were damn. Instead, hurricanes hedge and try to make the most of their bad situations.
Winner: Mitch Marner
With Rantanen’s board members, guess who’s the ball’s beauty in the free agent team this summer? Get that bag, Mickey.
Winner: Colorado Avalanche
Transaction deadlines are often an incomplete tool for lifting holes, teams scramble to add anything as the clock drops. There is rarely a perfect choice for a team, and this kind of deal happens even more rarely. But Brock Nelson is perfect for avalanches, which makes them obviously need a second-tier center.
Prices are high (first round and top prospect Calum Ritchie), and the islanders feel like Colorado. But the Avalanche can win the Stanley Cup this season. Nelson makes them better. Swap Casey Mittelstadt to Charlie Coyle only helps. You won’t hear anyone complaining about the lack of center in the avalanche.
Loser: Colorado Avalanche
In eight years, Rantanen was $96 million? It was reportedly almost what the avalanche had provided before he was sent to Carolina. There is obviously a tax exemption aspect, but if Lantanan never wants to leave and Colorado is willing to reach the same number, it is the first deal afterwards to Carolina.
Winnipeg took a step forward today, adding wise depth players to Brandon Tanev and Luke Schenn.
But the West was moving wildly at Winnipeg’s feet. A big step forward. The week starting with the Jets was disappointing as a department favorite.
– Murat Ates (@wpgmurat) March 7, 2025
Winner: Chicago Blackhawks
Trade Jones makes the Blackhawks worse. There is no way to do this fact. Once again, things could get worse before Chicago gets better. But Spencer Knight’s 41-shot debut left Chicago fans hoping for the first time since the 2023 draft lottery, an undeniable victory for Kyle Davidson, just keeping the $2.5 million Jones contract for the next five seasons.
Jones forced this problem, and Chicago had no leverage, what the Blackhawks seemed to hope for was a hat dump for futures with high retention rates. Instead, they earned a potential first goalkeeper and first round without heavy reservations. Removing PetrMrázek and landing a young, controllable first-round match in Joe Veleno is a good reward that not only brings a bad contract but also avoids the awkward three-pointer situation. Good job for Davidson.
Loser: Chicago Blackhawks
Davidson, full of hat space and desperate to have a differentiated man, set his sights on Rantanen, the ideal captivity for Connor Bedard. Since Rantanen is not on the board, Davidson can only hope that Toronto will not reach an agreement with Marner, who will put it into practice for the fixed ones.
Winner: Tampa Bay Lightning
One day, Julien Brisebois and The Lightning will have an estimate that on this day, all of their core players suddenly rolled down the aging curve, with the cabinets completely exposed. But that day was not today.
Tampa has won 10 of its last 11 games and has returned it to the NHL’s true contender level. When you have a chance to win, you go. At this point, Brisebois’ total disregard for the draft picks – Tampa has had a first-round pick in its last five drafts and has eliminated its first-round first-rounders in 2025, 2026 and 2027 (the last two have top 10 protections) – but that’s also the right attitude for contenders over the years.
Neither Yanni Gourde nor Oliver Bjorkstrand were the Needle Immigrants who changed the franchise, but Lightning and anyone knows that this is the second layer of depth that often makes a difference in the playoffs.
Every hockey fan should want their team’s general manager to think this way.
Loser: Buffalo Saber
Saber has to do something as they run towards a 14th consecutive spring without a playoff appearance. What did they do. But what they do doesn’t really change anything.
At best, swap Dylan Cozens (and Dennis Gilbert) for Josh Norris (and Deep Defender Jacob Bernard-Docker). In the worst case, it has high ceilings for players with low sales. The privilege of Saber sending the second round to Ottawa is confusing.
Rather than attacking and truly reshaping a talented but constantly performing roster through the likes of Jason Zucker and even Alex Tuch, the hilt got stuck. That place is the last.
After the transaction deadline, they are in the same position as before the transaction deadline – lost.
Winner: Toronto Maple Leaf
Leaves don’t have the biggest deadline – at some point in the daytime, when the chaos spins, you want to poke Brad Treliving with a stick to see if he’s still awake. But Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo are the good guys to sneak in and make Toronto a better defensive team.
Laughton is certainly an upgrade to Max Domi, which can be transferred to the wings. With the flyer retaining half of Lawton’s salary, the Leaves gained a reliable two-way three-tier center, playing two playoff games with just a $1.5 million cap. And, that doesn’t cost them any top prospects or young players. Even the first round of 2027 is protected by the top 10.
Lawton was nice on the ice and the room was great. It’s not the most exciting move, but it’s a shrewd guy for a team that has completed due to the lack of forward-looking depth in previous playoffs.
Loser: Vancouver Canucks
It sounds like progress may be made in Brock Boeser extensions, but what are these Canucks? They didn’t trade JT Miller earlier this season for that, with Carson Soucy heading to the third round at the deadline. They didn’t reinstall because they stuck with Boeser and Elias Pettersson. Their captain and the best player were hurt, and they were on the periphery of the playoffs, and they didn’t seem to move forward slowly.
Winner: San Jose Shark
Absolutely not, Sharks general manager Mike Grier has won 50 solid games from Jake Walman, a second-round draft pick (from Detroit as a hat-reducing sweetener last summer) and a first-round draft pick (from Edmonton to Walman on Thursday). Steve Yzerman never will.
Loser: Edmonton Oiler
Dallas went out to add Rantanen’s best player and locked him in for a long time. Colorado went out to add Nelson’s maximum rent. Edmonton added a solid two-man defensive player to Walman and a forward in Trent Frederic. If this is an arms race, Edmonton is losing. The Oilers are the defending conference champion and a preseason favorite to win everything. Now, they look like the fifth largest team in the West. It’s foolish to suspect Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, but the Oilers have a tough climb to get back to the finals.
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / sports; Bill Wippert, Mike Stobe, Josh Lavellee / Getty Images)
